All Blog Posts (3,317)

Kevin
today is 4 weeks and it is every bit as hard as the day I found you dead not a day has gone by with out you on my mind you know Kevin I can't drive without my I-pod and songs I use to listen to that made me happy just don't have the same happy beat anymore and other song have way to much meaning now songs like Diamond Rio ( ONE MORE DAY ) LeAnn Rimes ( HOW DO I LIVE ) that song that we use to listen to on every year on Sept 1 Faith Hill ( breathe )but the song that really hits home… Continue

I should start at the beginning I guess. I'm from a large family, 6 boys and 2 girls. My sister is eldest followed by 5 boys, then there is me and last but not least my baby brother. We all lived a pretty interesting life with joys and sorrows. My Dad is an alcoholic and Mom was left to deal with running the house and taking care of everything. We lived in our bubble for decades until the bubble burst. My eldest brother Jim, a construction worker and carpenter by trade was suddenly fatigued… Continue

I lost my brother on Jan. 30, 2008, he was only 26 years old with two sons. He lived the last three months in the hosp., and he just keep saying that he didnt wanna die in there but he was going too. August 16th will be his 27th birthday and I dont know what to do. I cry all the time even know im crying, lot of nights i cry myself to sleep, I cry on my way some where I just cant stop crying! He was my best friend. We got so close I have two sister also but between me and him we were best buds.… Continue

I lost my dad to cancer April 1 1992. I still have not been able to accept his death completely. My dad was a big man, he was so full of life and love that his passing left a huge hole in my life, my heart, and all I can think is.... I want him back. It is hard to lose any family member, but there is a special bond between a father and daughter. I was with my daddy when he passed. I was there in the bedroom he died in, and watched as he took his final breath. I spent the last night he was on… Continue

Q. One of my customers, someone I’ve done business with for many years, just lost his brother. I know from numerous conversations that my customer didn’t get along with his brother and barely spoke to him recently. What should I write in a condolence note in these circumstances? Somehow, “This is a terrible loss” doesn’t fit.

A. Complicated family relationships are all around us, and it’s definitely awkward when the connection between the bereaved and the deceased…

Q: When my father died recently, I received flowers and many condolence notes. Do I have to send acknowledgments right away? What should I say?

A. It’s courteous and important to acknowledge notes of sympathy, as well as flowers or food baskets you’ve received, or contributions made in memory of the deceased. Finding the right words can be difficult, however, especially if you must write to a great many people. One widow I know had to compose 75…

It's only natural that there are superstitions surrounding cemeteries. As a kid I remember being told that you had to hold your breath whenever you passed a cemetery. That didn't really work for me, because I lived across the street from a cemetery during my entire childhood.

It was a little country cemetery, bordered by fields and forest. It probably had about a hundred occupants, dating back to the 1880s. I used to play in it, looking at the tombstones and pretending to talk to the… Continue

When I was a child, my family had a framed print with an old man and a motto underneath that said, "Never regret growing older; it's a privilege denied to many." I can still see it in my mind's eye - the old man's weather-beaten hat, the driftwood frame, hung on our old wood paneling.

It's a very Irish Catholic, gloomy, guilt-inducing thing to say, like when my Great-Grandfather Hughes used to tell us that if we saw a penny on the street and didn't pick it up, "you'll see the day… Continue

National Public Radio produces a segment called "This I Believe," and it's just fantastic. People from all walks of life contribute essays around the topic of what they believe. (Just like the title says.)

Anyway, NPR broadcast one essay in particular that's always stuck with me, and it's called "Always Go to the Funeral." The author Deirdre Sullivan says that her father taught her the lesson that you should always attend the funerals of people you know, and that it's very important… Continue

Q. A neighbor of mine in her late forties drowned in a freak boating accident when her canoe overturned. I want to go to the funeral, but what can I possibly say to her husband and her children, who range in age from 8 to 14?

Apparently New York is not only the state in which resides the city that never sleeps but is the second home to the amazing twenty five year old girl who never sleeps. I haven't slept since I landed three days ago. I watch reruns and read old newspapers and do anything but sleep. Some of this may have to do with the fact that when I am here I sleep in my dead brother's bed staring at the wrapped christmas presents I bought him and he never got to open. Some of… Continue

My grandfather Ozell died in November 2006, six months after a devastating stroke. The doctors were amazed by his recovery. They told us, “He has a large brain.” Even in our grief, we felt proud to be associated with such an amazing man and his impressive brain.

Grandaddy and his large brain fought hard for those six months, but the fight took its toll. He passed away peacefully with his wife, three daughters, and many brothers and sisters by his side. It's been a year and a half,… Continue

I don't need to tell anyone in this room why my brother was one of the most amazing people you could have met. You could have met my brother for thirty seconds and known that this…this was somebody special. Even less you could have never met my brother and have seen at the funeral home or even here today how many people in his short twenty-two years he had touched, not in a fleeting fashion, but in a deeply profound life altering way. Each of us has our own story of Andy. Each of us has a… Continue